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By James Bickerton
News Reporter
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The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates more than 90 percent of the state's electricity network, has expressed confidence it can maintain power supplies during this week's cold snap.
On Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned residents to expect the "coldest weather event of the year" over the next few days, while the federal National Weather Service has extreme cold warnings in place for a swathe of northern and central areas.
Why It Matters
In February 2021, the Texas power grid failed during a bitter winter storm causing widespread power outages across the state. More than 240 people died, and over 4.5 million homes and businesses lost power, in what has been described as the worst infrastructure failure in the state's history.
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While Texas has since taken numerous steps to strengthen its power grid, any repeat of the 2021 outages would be severely damaging for the state, and put its political leaders under pressure.
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What To Know
In a Monday post on X, formerly Twitter, the operator announced it had issued a weather watch between February 19 and 21 "due to forecasted extreme cold weather across the ERCOT region, higher electrical demand, and the potential for lower reserves."
However, it added that "grid conditions are expected to be normal" throughout the week.
A public forecast published by ERCOT shows supply substantially outpacing demand this week, with a surplus of around 12,000 megawatts at the narrowest point on Thursday morning, well above the grid emergency threshold of 2,500 megawatts.
NWS extreme cold warnings cover much of northern and central Texas until noon on Thursday, with wind chill readings as cold as minus 15 F for some areas.
The federal agency warned that frostbite and hypothermia are "possible if precautions are not taken."
At a press conference on Monday, Abbott said: "There will be widespread freezing across the entire state with temperatures down to near zero degrees. People need to be very cautious over the coming days as temperatures plummet, so make sure that you take care of yourself."
What People Are Saying
Speaking to Newsweek, AccuWeather meteorologist Jacob Hinson said: "Snowfall chances for most of the state are minimal, but the very northern tip of the panhandle could see a coating to an inch through Tuesday night. Any snow flurries that make their way further south in the panhandle won't accumulate more than a coating.
"The rest of the state should dodge this round of snow. The other impactful weather will be some freezing rain and drizzle near the eastern panhandle and northern prairie through Dallas on Tuesday night."
In an X post on Monday, Governor Abbott wrote: "Provided an update on Texas' response to statewide weather threats today from the State Operations Center in Austin. State agencies are prepared for wildfire threats in West Texas, potential flash flooding in East Texas, & severe winter weather impacting large portions of Texas."
During an interview with Newsweek, Cy McGeady, a fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Texas' strong economic and population growth have caused power demand to surge.
She said: "Texas has seen population growth and things like the oil and gas industry, the boom in the Permian Basin, and those operations being run by electricity, now increasingly by grid electricity. So all of these things are combining to create tremendous demand pressure on the Texas power system."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen how severe this week's cold weather will be for Texas and whether the ERCOT network will hold up as they are forecasting. Any failure would be extremely damaging for the state, with possible political repercussions.
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